The way higher education teachers and managers develop teaching and learning is dependent on their overall agency and learning as professionals. Therefore, the viewpoint of agency is explored in this section. Agency processes explain how the actual work is carried out and therefore it helps to understand a model an organization might match with.
Biesta, Priestley & Robinson (2015) have studied how agency is not what individuals can own, nor a competence or capacity either, but rather something that individuals do. Agency implies a quality of the engagement of the individu-als.
There are several approaches that try to explain agency; however, this thesis focuses on how agency is achieved in concrete situations, more specifically in relation to 21st century skills. The ecological agency approach sees individuals as actors who “critically shape their responses to problematic situations” (Biesta &
Tedder, 2006, p. 11). Hence, agency remarks that actors act by means of their en-vironment instead of in their enen-vironment. Therefore, the achievement of agency results from the interplay of individual attempts, available resources and rele-vant contextual and structural factors which come in unique situations (Biesta &
Tedder, 2007).
Agency understood under these terms suggests understanding human be-ings as creative and reflexive while acting towards overcoming societal con-straints at the same time as being constrained by their material and social envi-ronments (Priestley & Biesta, 2013). In this line, Leibowitz, et al. (2011), comments that teachers should be good learners and able to learn from their own practice through reflection.
3.3.1 Professional development from identity and agency point of view
Vähäsantanen (2013) emphasizes how professional agency is a socially resourced individual phenomenon, which is represented and updated through the individ-ual’s mental and practical activity, instead of via collective efforts and activities.
However, this does not imply that the collaborative processes for agency would be denied. Professional agency can be seen as emerged and played in the context of changing work practices (Vähäsantanen, 2013).
Change is associated with how individuals manage their intentions and agency when engaging with the situations that are somehow challenging or simply different. Thus, individuals’ subjectivity is itself shaped by events, espe-cially dramatic events. The continuous reshaping of practices reflects the ongoing negotiation between personal and social factors. Eventually, transformations in both individual and work practices will happen through these negotiations. In sum, according to Biesta, Priestley & Robinson (2015), there are three major di-mensions in agency, which should be taken into account. These are: a set of in-fluences from the past (iterational dimension), orientations towards the future (projective dimension) and; the active engagement with the present (practical di-mension). Thus, individuals are not entirely subject to change; instead, they tend to be actively engaged in their learning and the reshaping of cultural practices, such as those required for work practices (Billet, 2006).
Biesta, Priestley & Robinson (2015) have developed a model in accordance with the ecological approach of agency. This model highlights that the past ex-periences shape the achievement of agency, including both professional and per-sonal biographies. Thus, agency is also orientated towards the future and that is put into practice in the present. This enactment is highly influenced by structural, material and cultural resources. Biesta, Priestley & Robinson (2015) present this theorization as a three part model where the iterational dimension, including life and professional stories; the practical-evaluative dimension, with cultural, struc-tural and material subdimensions, such as values, relationships and physical en-vironments; and the projective dimension, including short- and long-term goals are all interacting with each other.
When it comes to identity in previous studies, Little & Bartlett (2002) sug-gest that the essential issues of teacher identity include how they think of them-selves as teachers, for instance, what matters to them, their beliefs about schools, teaching and students and how they define their moral and intellectual obliga-tions. In the same line, van Veen & Sleegers (2009), suggest that different ele-ments of the professional identity of teachers might include their perceptions of their self-image, core responsibilities, self-esteem, beliefs about teaching, subject and subject pedagogy, teaching as work and job motivation. Hence, professional identity includes their personal stories. Moreover, Leibowitz, et al. (2011), state that the identity emerges from the interactions with the world. Therefore, it is a matter of “what individuals care about”. Emotions play an important role to adapt identity as they have the “power to modify the cognitive goal” and ulti-mately in defining one’s self-worth, strongly intertwined with self-esteem and self-image. Archer (2000) suggests that reflexivity enhances personal identity, which individuals acquire at maturity and thus, is the outcome of a continuous sense of self.
Identity and agency are intertwined because, on one hand, as some authors suggest (Watson, 2006; Beijaard, et al., 2004) it is often believed that teacher iden-tities tend to be dynamic and changeable at the current changing world. It is then, when negotiations happen. However, like Vähäsantanen & Eteläpelto (2011) state, professional identity negotiations become more challenging when the al-ready existing identity clashes with the expected identity. Therefore, the gap be-tween the desirable and the present state of teacher identity is at the heart of the professional identity negotiations. At any case, the process of changing identities can be challenging and a long-term process (Vähäsantanen & Eteläpelto, 2011).
All in all, the negotiation process cannot be conceptualized without taking into consideration perspectives joining both social and personal, that is, because pro-fessional identity negotiations are conceived and studied as processes in which teachers have an active role in relation to social suggestions that emerge from the ongoing changing context (Eteläpelto & Vähäsantanen, 2006). On the other hand,
Biesta, Prestley & Robinson (2015) state that there is a high dependence on per-sonal qualities that teachers bring into their daily work in teacher agency.
Considering how these identity negotiation processes can be reinforced, Hänninen & Eteläpelto (2008) have studied how personal agency can be strength-ened. They suggest that it can be done by organizing special empowerment pro-grammes. Such empowerment programmes could be translated into opportuni-ties to analyze their own competencies, their work philosophy and the culture of their work organization by using creative methods such as psychodrama, socio-drama, visual arts and narrations.
Billett (2001, 2002) has pointed out that it is essential to understand and con-template the workplace learning idea of dual participation, which means the way in which workplaces afford opportunities for learning and how individuals de-cide to engage in activities with the support and guidance provided by the work-place.
All in all, the approach of agency emphasizes the need to keep developing in order to become better professionals by deliberate attempts to bring in some development, change or innovation. In accordance, Fullan (1993) claims that moral purpose and changes in agency are embedded in what good teaching and effective change are about. The relevance of deliberate individual conceptions in a team enhances development and new conceptions. The conceptions once are understood and brought into practice are then conceived as new paradigms to work in an organization.
3.3.2 Learning and development from expertise point of view
Within the framework of expertise preceding the studies on agency, researchers such as Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1986) have claimed that the development of expertise goes through the following phases: (1) novice, (2) advanced beginner, (3) compe-tent, (4) proficient and; (5) expert. However, their model lacked a clear explana-tion about the processes through which individuals advance from one phase to the next. Concepts such as deliberate practice (Ericsson, 2006) and progressive problem solving (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993) have been created to address the
perspective of advancement and they are conceived nowadays as concepts com-pleting the picture of individual learning processes. According to Tynjälä (2013), expertise involves working maximally, at the edge of one’s competence with even surpassing oneself. In this way, individuals are learning constantly new things and develop their expertise significantly.
In sum, the theoretical starting points which have been presented above for this study, particularly the perspectives of agency and expertise, underline that it is important to pay attention the following factors, while studying university personnel as advancers of 21st 1century skills. Firstly, a holistic approach is re-quired to understand the phenomenon as well as taking the physical content into consideration while studying the development of agency and expertise. Both ex-pertise and agency keep advancing throughout the professional career, thus, fu-ture projection is relevant to keep accomplishing either short- or long-term goals in order to grow both personally and professionally. In the meanwhile, the ad-justment of values and beliefs occurs, as well as the establishment and change of roles which brings in trust and structures power relations.
4 RESEARCH DESIGN
This chapter presents the aim and the research questions of the study, the context of data collection and research participants, the research method and analysis and quality and;
ethical considerations.